Church of the Immaculate Conception in Busko-Zdrój

The Church of the Immaculate Conception is the oldest church in Busko-Zdrój and a remnant of the Norbertine convent that stood here for more than six centuries. The first church on the site was founded around 1166 by the knight Dzierżko, and the present building bears traces of the Middle Ages, of rebuilding after a fire in 1590 and of reconstruction after the great town fire of 1820. Today it is a parish church in the heart of the spa town.

History: from Dzierżko's foundation to dissolution

Dzierżko, owner of part of the Busko lands and brother of Bishop Wit of Płock, first founded the church and then, in 1180–1186, an adjoining convent of Norbertine nuns – a daughter house of the convent in Witów. Around 1190, before setting out on the Third Crusade, he made a will: his wife was to enter the Busko convent and bring it his entire estate. In 1470 a new church replaced the original one; it burned down in 1590. Rebuilding lasted from 1592 to 1621, and in 1595 the church was consecrated by Cardinal Jerzy Radziwiłł.

In 1819 a tsarist decree dissolved the Norbertine order, and a year later a great fire destroyed the town, the church and the convent buildings. During reconstruction the church was turned around so that its entrance faced the street: the altar was moved to the west wall, the former nave became the chancel and the chancel the nave. That is why the nave is now narrower than the chancel. A Baroque-Neoclassical façade was added on the east side.

What to see

• The west wall with a walled-up pointed-arch portal – the only surviving part of the Gothic building.
• High altar of 1804 with a painting of the Virgin attributed to Franciszek Smuglewicz.
• St Anne's Chapel (now Our Lady of Częstochowa), from the post-1590 rebuilding – square, with a dome and lantern. Its east wall holds the stone epitaph of Anna Kowalkowska née Korycińska, wife of the Sandomierz starost (d. 1606), and its south wall a Mannerist foundation plaque of Zygmunt Urbański, uncovered again in 2009.
• The painting "Jesus, I Trust in You" by Adolf Hyła, a twin of his famous Divine Mercy image in Kraków-Łagiewniki.
• On the square next to the church: a statue of the Immaculate Virgin from 1738 on a column and a late 19th-century bell tower.

Tripto tips

This is a working church, so visit the interior outside Mass times. On weekdays the parish holds Mass at 6:30 and 18:00 from April to September and at 6:30 and 17:00 from October to March; on Sundays there are several Masses between 6:30 and 18:00. Allow 30–45 minutes for the church, bell tower and statue, then walk on to the spa park.